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World Cup 2010: Cape Town

There was a half-hour spell during the second half of that ought to have set the alarm bells ringing for the seven other nations left in this World Cup - particularly those from South America.

Shortly before scored the goal that put the Spanish into the quarter-finals, something visibly clicked for Vincent del Bosque's side and they began to look like their old selves for the first time since arriving in South Africa.

It is not that the European champions were misfiring badly until then, well not in the manner of the likes of England, Italy or France at any rate. I still saw more pretty passing patterns from Spain in the first 45 minutes at Cape Town Stadium than Fabio Capello's men managed in two weeks, it is just that they seemed unable to make their dominance in possession count.

Their seemed to knock some of the swagger out of Del Bosque's side - and and failed to repair all of the damage. For large parts of the first half against the Portuguese, I thought Spain had an unusually fragile look about them.

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Brazil are not the only team at this World Cup whose fans and media feel that just winning is not enough. Despite his side's impeccable progress through Group E,

Given that, like Brazil, , perhaps it is not surprising that their supporters and reporters alike are proving difficult to please.

But we should also remember that, despite a succession of supremely talented teams and individuals in the last 40 years, only once have the Netherlands collected a major international prize - the 1988 European Championships. Surely winning at all costs is understandable when the alternative option is not winning at all?

That seems to be the way Van Marwijk sees it, and he has already answered some of the criticism he has faced at this tournament by saying: "Why do we focus on good football instead of winning? We want to do both but the important thing is we learn to win ugly games."

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World Cup 2010: Cape Town

The Italian team coach, escorted by about a dozen police cars with sirens blaring, was in such a rush to leave Cape Town on Monday night that it forced our Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ minibus off the road as it hurtled past us at high speed.

I'm hardly surprised and his players wanted to make a speedy exit and put a difficult evening behind them. They might have been in the fast lane on the road, but on the pitch they had been pretty pedestrian for most of the evening.

Yes, they survived atrocious weather, picked up a point, avoided an embarrassing defeat and should still qualify out of with relative ease, but the defending champions did not begin this World Cup in a manner which suggests they are going to prove any of their detractors wrong - and there are plenty of those, especially back in their homeland.

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At the age of 20, wonderkid is the baby of the Slovakia squad in , but he has already done a lot of growing up during his country's journey to their first World Cup finals.

Weiss is one of the stars of a talented young team that At the very least they have realistic hopes of progressing out of a group that also contains and Paraguay but nobody seems quite sure exactly how good the Slovaks are.

The same can be said about Weiss. I'd heard a lot about him before I spoke to him a few days ago - but I have to admit I've seen an awful lot less.

I know he is a skilful right-winger with eight caps for his country but he has not had much chance to prove it at club level, with only four starts in all competitions to show from his time at City and

A series of sparkling international performances since winning his first cap against Iceland last August mean he is much better known in his homeland, but that was not always the case. The only reason he was a household name in Slovakia when he received that first call-up is because he shares his monicker with

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Ahead of the start of the World Cup, we have been looking back at previous tournaments with the help of some of the key characters and the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's archive footage. In today's final installment, the focus is really only ever on one man...

Germany, June and July, 2006

Outside of Italy at least, I'm pretty sure there is only one image that springs to mind when people recall the 2006 World Cup in Germany - and it isn't

Sadly for France legend Zinedine Zidane, one of the greatest footballers of his and any generation, the crazed head-butt that sent Marco Materazzi flying - and saw Zidane sent off - near the end of extra-time in the final is what that game, this tournament, and ultimately his career is best remembered for.

Despite the global focus on the incident, what's notable is how long it took to get to the bottom of what sent Zidane over the edge. as did numerous email virals that were sent in the aftermath but the truth proved difficult to pin down.

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